Officials embark on annual visits to Thompson camps

Friday

Jul 26, 2013 at 2:00 AM

THOMPSON — Boys at Camp Shalva on Heiden Road clapped and sang Hebrew songs and then swarmed their visitors for autographs on Thursday during an annual goodwill visit in Sullivan County arranged by rabbis of the ultra-orthodox communities.

Victor Whitman

THOMPSON — Boys at Camp Shalva on Heiden Road clapped and sang Hebrew songs and then swarmed their visitors for autographs on Thursday during an annual goodwill visit in Sullivan County arranged by rabbis of the ultra-orthodox communities.

Each year, a select few Town of Thompson and law enforcement officials visit the Hasidic camps at the start of the nine-week season. Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini, Sheriff Mike Schiff, Councilman Richard Sush and town Justice Perry Meltzer, among others, toured three camps in the town.

Rabbi Moishe Indig, a leader in the Satmar community, organized the first tour several years ago.

Indig said the original purpose was to keep open lines of communication. The cultures come together only briefly in the summer months.

"We need elected officials to know their community and the community to know the elected officials," he said. "We have a big, big community."

Nowadays, the local officials are treated like rock stars and city politicos sometimes tag along for the exposure. This year state Sen. Eric Adams, who is running for Brooklyn borough president, made the 90-minute trip.

Aside from Camp Shalva, the tour included stops at Camp Ohel Baruch and lastly to meet 1,000 kids at the Satmar Boy's Camp at the former Kutsher's Sports Academy. Afterward, officials were invited to attend a barbecue in their honor.

While spats between the town government and Hasidic camps crop up every summer, Cellini said relations have improved as people have come to know each other.

"If we have situation, we get together and it is usually resolved quickly," Cellini said.

At Camp Shalva, the supervisor was greeted with a song in Hebrew and the chant over and over, "We Welcome You, Tony Cellini, Shalom!" The dining hall was decked out with balloons, and one of Cellini's old campaign signs hung down over the elevated area where they sat with all eyes on them. Cellini is retiring in January. The crowd was aware this would be his last visit as supervisor.

The 200 boys, ages 8 to 12, come from Brooklyn to the camp near the former Raleigh Hotel.

The boys sat along eights rows of 25, suddenly jumping under the lunch tables and then on top of the tables in a mock emergency drill.

Between speeches they sang in Hebrew "There Should be Peace" and "How Good and Sweet it is to Sit all Together."

Afterward, Cellini flipped his campaign brochures off the porch. The kids caught them fluttering down and ran up the steps to queue up for his autograph, then darted around to get the others.